Cargo: the other half of the secure-border equation

Rod MacDonald, assistant commissioner ofCustoms and Border Protection's Office of InformationTechnology, is the point man for theAutomated Commercial Environment, thecomputerized system that checks cargo cominginto the country at both land and seaports.

Working both with U.S. Visit and NationalTargeting Center officials, ACE collects electroniccargo data and passes it on to appropriateofficers in the field for further analysis.

'Every bit of information we can get in advanceall helps us pinpoint where there mightbe a threat,' MacDonald said.

Although ACE has been in existence since2000, the program morphed considerably inlate 2003 with the ACE Secure Data Portal,an online one-stop shop to CBP systems, includingthe Border Release Advanced Screeningand Selectivity System, the Pre-arrivalProcessing System, and the Free and SecureTrade system. It also contains monthly periodicpayment and statement features thatstreamline accounting and report processingfor importers and government officials.

ACE is continuing to roll out its electronicmanifest feature for trucks, an applicationthat lets highway shippers file their manifestsprior to a truck's arrival at a border point, expeditingthe processing of their cargo.

Although e-Manifest just launched thispast December, MacDonald said CBP likelywill mandate the system later this year.

'We can't stop every truck and open everycontainer, but this gives us a better idea ofwhat's coming,' he said.

Like U.S. Visit, ACE's rollout has not beentotally smooth. CBP delayed its rollout lastyear because of security add-ons that contributedto escalating costs. In fact, accordingto the Government Accountability Office,CBP in April 2005 raised its expected budgetto $3.1 billion from $1.3 billion in 2001. It alsowas expected to be fully completed in 2006,but CBP has pushed that date back to 2010.

And in a report released late last month, theaudit agency said that although ACE hasmade progress, DHS has been slow to addressmanagement issues that continue toplague the program.

CBP also has set unrealistic performancegoals that have hampered ACE's success,GAO said. 'For example, in fiscal year 2005,the program set a target that 11 percent ofall Customs and Border Protection employeeswould use ACE,' auditors said. 'However,this target does not reflect the fact thatmany CBP employees will never use thesystem.'

Despite these issues, DHS is counting onACE to complement U.S. Visit and otherscreening and targeting programs.

'Rob Thormeyer

WHO GOES THERE? The Homeland Security Department launched US-VISIT, a program using biometric technologies, to enhance the nation's security and facilitate travel in 2004. This test was at Dulles International Airport outside Washington.

As a car creeps toward the U.S. border, a computer, gathering data viacameras and using modeling technology, sends an alert to a patrol officer.

Drawing on information from multipleHomeland Security Department agencies'data such as the car's make, model,license plate, location and time of day'the software predicts whether the car islikely to contain undocumented personsor counterfeit goods hidden in the trunk.

The information is quickly processedand presented to the border guard, whocan then determine'before the car reachesthe gate'whether to take further actionbased on the analysis.

This predictive modeling technology,which DHS' Customs and Border Protection'sNational Targeting Center is stillrolling out, can lead to the arrest of undocumentedpersons and seizure of illegalgoods at land borders. Officials declinedto discuss specifics about the modelingtechnology.

Casting a wide net

DHS officials say the scenario is one ofmany examples of how the agency, despiteits struggles, has quietly put together awide-reaching net of screening and targetingprograms, working not only within itsseveral internal organizations'such asCBP, the Coast Guard and Citizenship andImmigration Services'but with otheragencies such as the Justice and State departments.

Through internal programs such as thetargeting center, the Automated CommercialEnvironment, and the U.S. Visitorand Immigrant Status Indicator System,and intergovernmental initiativessuch as Justice's Terrorist Screening Center,DHS is breaking down the stovepipesof its agencies, the officials said. And it isalso helping remove long-standing bureaucraticsilos that have, in the past, preventedintelligence and security agenciesfrom communicating.

'We've made unbelievable strides ... andour ability to team with other agencies hasreally grown exponentially,' said CharlesBartoldus, executive director of nationaltargeting and screening for CBP.

Scott Hastings, CIO of U.S. Visit, agreed:'We are seeing very large initiatives takingbig chunks out of the connect-the-dotproblem.'

For example, two DHS flagship programs'U.S. Visit and ACE'operate onthe same network and share the same infrastructureand routers. A separate initiative,the Terrorist Screening Center, housesemployees from several different agencies.And some officials, such as Bartoldus,serve on steering committees for otherprojects. In Bartoldus' case, he is a memberof ACE's board of directors.

'This is really the leader as faras information sharing,' saidDonna Bucella, director of TSC.'This is one place where the rubbermeets the road and is useful.'In practice, the targeting centerand the Terrorist Screening Centeroffer perhaps the best modelsof technology and interoperabilitycoming together.

NTC, established just after theSept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacksand later rolled into DHS, targetssuspicious people and cargoentering and leaving the country.It uses data gathered from CBP'scargo and trade processing system,the Automated CommercialEnvironment, U.S. Visit and theNational Counterterrorism Center'sclassified Terrorist IdentitiesDatamart Environment.

The information is fed intoNTC's Automated TargetingSystem, a program responsiblefor risk assessment at the borders.With predictive modeling technology,the center's officials usethe targeting system to determineif a car trying to cross the borderlikely contains undocumented people or ashipment coming into a seaport containscounterfeit goods.

Bartoldus expects ATS-Land to finish itsdeployment to all land border points inthe country by the end of June. The agencyalso is launching a pilot at seaports thissummer that will track counterfeit goodscoming into the country, he said.

'With predictive modeling, thecomputer is not giving me the datato analyze. It is the computer lookingat the data and saying, 'Thispattern follows a pattern I've seenbefore,' ' Bartoldus said.

If the pattern warrants furtherattention, NTC officials contactother border security and law enforcementpersonnel, such as theTransportation Security Administration,to determine the nextcourse of action, Bartoldus said.

'We're all working on the sameissues at the same time, but it's aclear handoff,' he said.

One link in the communicationschain is the Terrorist ScreeningCenter, which maintains the government'sconsolidated terroristwatch list.

'We are a clearinghouse,' Bucellasaid. 'What we do is ... connect up thediplomatic world, the international intelligencecommunity, the law enforcementcommunity, and our state and locals.Think of us as a facilitator.'

Data collections

The list Bucella's shop maintains is more acollection of 'supported systems''variouswatch lists and databases including U.S.Visit, the FBI's National Crime InformationCenter, and the State Department'sConsular Lookout and Support System.

The screening center also has access tothe National Counterterrorism Center'sclassified Terrorist Identities DatamartEnvironment, a database that containsnames and biographical information ofsuspected international terrorists.

'While our database is a list of justnames and identities, we also have thesupported systems to be able to dive intothose to find out 'Why is that person onthe list?' and 'Is the person that's currentlybeing confronted and encountered ... infact a person on the watch list?' ' she said.

The list is used when, say, a person applyingfor a visa overseas triggers a hit onState's Consular Lookout andSupport System. The consularofficial is told to contact TSCto determine whether thatperson is actually the personon the watch list and shouldbe denied entry, Bucella said.

Because TSC draws on informationfrom so manyagencies, the office is set uplike a central repository, withseveral agencies loaning staffto run the operation.

'This is the theory I use: Why don't youcome join us? We are the U.S. government,and we're trying to coordinate thegovernment's approach, not one agency'sapproach,' she said. 'Let's see if it's a usefultool to have somebody here and also ifwe need a relationship. ... Everybodywalks in here and they become a screeningcenter employee. They bring their expertisefrom different agencies, but theirmission is the Terrorist Screening Center.'

And while TSC is the repository, theagencies and programs it feeds also adhereto the intergovernmental approach thatscreening and targeting demands.

DHS' U.S. Visit, a flagship programlaunched by former secretary Tom Ridge,uses fingerprint data collected by CBP andconsular officials overseas to determinewhether certain people attempting to enterthe country are using fraudulent identitiesor could be on various terrorist watch lists.

The program also is trying to keep bettertrack of visa overstays and whethervisitors are actually leaving the countrywhen their visas expire.

The system runs on the existingAutomated Biometric IdentificationSystem fingerprintdatabase, known at IDENT,which currently collects two fingerprintimages. DHS checksand verifies visa-seekers' fingerprintsagainst IDENT and databasesmaintained by the FBIand others to ensure that theperson is not on any terrorist orcriminal watch lists.

The program 'extends ourborders' to the overseas consularoffices, he said, because itgives DHS officials a prescreeningtool that prevents anindividual on any terrorist orcriminal watch lists'once hisidentity has been verified'from entering the country.

Although he could not providespecifics, Hastings said theprogram has prevented murderers,pedophiles, drug traf-fickers and immigration violators fromcrossing the border.

U.S. Visit also provides data to DHS' Immigrationand Customs Enforcement of-fice on people who may have overstayedtheir visa dates, Hastings said. 'For thefirst time, we've taken enforcement actionson overstays based on our system,' hesaid. 'That's a pretty powerful indication'of U.S. Visit's reach.

Checkout trouble

But here is where U.S. Visit runs into criticism,because it has no way to tell when orif people have left the country.

Hastings admitted the exit program stillhas its work cut out for it: Although thereare 14 pilot programs at exit pointsthroughout the country, it is still littlemore than an honor system.

'We're fully aware of the shortcomings,and there are some issues DHS is lookingat seriously' to bolster the project, Hastingssaid.

At this point, the pilot system consistsmainly of an unmanned U.S. Visit kiosk atan airport or another exit location where aperson signs in (or perhaps more appropriately,checks out) and, presumably,leaves the country.

'The only way you know where peopleare is if they comply with' the exit program,said Rich Pierce, executive vicepresident of the National Border PatrolCouncil, a union for border securityguards. 'Unless someone has been arrestedand fingerprinted previously, we can'tfind them.'

'The current solution, while imperfect, isan improvement over nothing,' Stolarskisaid. 'If we wait for the perfect solution,what happens between then and now?'

Most officials and homeland security expertsagree that, at this moment, the infrastructurefor an effective exit system justdoes not exist.

And with DHS secretary MichaelChertoff focusing more on such new programsas the Secure Border Initiative,some experts wonder if U.S. Visit will everhave an effective exit program.

'The biggest challenge with anexit/entry system isn't the technology,'said one industry official. 'The problemis the amount of money and time that'sgoing to be required to have an effectiveprogram.' For instance, the source said,the systems must be durable enough towithstand hostile conditions in the field.

GAO: Watch the exits

The Government Accountability Officehas pointed to the program's shortcomingsincluding its failure to find a sustainableexit system.

'They do have an entry and pre-entryprogram,' said Randy Hite, GAO's directorfor IT architecture and systems issues.'They've created a deterrent effect forkeeping terrorists out of the country, andthat's good. But has it accomplished everything?No.'

In particular, GAO in February foundthat U.S. Visit has yet to implement a systemsecurity plan or a privacy impactstatement'recommendations the congressionalwatchdog agency made morethan two years ago. Also, GAO concludedthat DHS has not added cost-effectivecontrols to address risk and weigh the project'svalue.

As a result, the verdict on U.S. Visit is 'amixed bag,' Hite said. 'There's examples ofsuccess, and there's examples of wherethey haven't met commitments.'

Despite valid criticisms, U.S. Visit andACE have achieved some real success, atleast in part because they share the sameinfrastructure, and many of the same principalsand information.

This interoperability has resulted in theapprehension of suspected terrorists andcriminals, while at the same time maintaininga constant flow of traffic and tradeat the borders, officials said.

'We give ourselves a pretty good reportcard,' Hastings said.

Communications between the severalagencies, 'something that used to be verycomplex, is resolved within minutes becauseeveryone knows their roles,' saidCBP's Bartoldus.